69I'm sorry this is later than I said it would be. You see (cue excuses), my memory stick decided to hate me one day. I had six chapters of this story typed up, and it corrupted three of them: chapters two, four and five. Chapter four was long and it'll take me forever to re-write it. This is why this one is late; I had to write it again from scratch. But yeah, chapter three will be up on time tomorrow, because that one survived the rage of the memory stick.
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Word Count: 1,165
Never before had I wanted my Monday morning classes to pass as slowly as possible. Of course, when I want something to happen, the complete opposite occurs, and before I knew it, it was time for lunch.
I skulked around the sixth form common room for the majority of the hour. Holding a random text book of mine in front of my face, I stared blankly at the pages. I wasn't reading; I was doing my best to hide.
The bell signalling the end of lunch rang far too soon. I whimpered quietly to myself as I packed my book away and dashed out of the common room towards the music block.
When I reached the classroom, I poked my head around the door; thankfully, no one was in there apart from Mrs. Welch, the somewhat ditzy music teacher. I darted across the room, making sure I got my usual spot at the back, and immediately shoved my head in my bag again, aiming to both hide and fish out my notebook and pencil case. However, it's kind of pointless trying to hide when your music class only has five students in it.
What with the class being so small, I couldn't help but notice Jay as he entered the room. Initially, he didn't look at me, but when his friend, whom I didn't know, pointed at me and started sniggering, he glanced at me. He didn't smile, but he didn't look at me like I was some horrific disgrace, either. Then he turned back to his friend and smacked him on the arm with the back of his hand, and I could have sworn that I heard him say, "Dude, shut the fuck up." I looked back at the table, doing my best to hide my smile.
Once everyone had taken their seats, Mrs. Welch stood up from behind her desk and addressed the class. "Do you all remember how I asked you to find possible pieces for the performing element of your course?" No one replied, so she carried on. "You either can't be bothered to reply, or you haven't got any pieces sorted. Well, either way, we're performing today, so I want you to go away and get yourself set up. I'll come round and see you all individually."
Yanking my bag off the table, I stood up and darted out of the room. I made my way down the short corridor and into the small practice room at the end of it, which had a desk, an old piano and a stool inside. Settling down on the squishy stool, I fished several pieces of sheet music out of my bag and set them on the stand attached to the piano. I played through the introduction of the song a couple of times, making sure my timing was right. Then I started singing.
"My tea's gone cold,
I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all.
The morning rain clouds up my window,
And I can't see at all.
Even if I could, it'd all be grey,
But your picture on my wall,
It reminds me that it's not so bad, it's not so bad."
I was so into singing that I failed to hear the door to the practice room open. So, naturally, I jumped a mile and let out a little shriek when someone said, 'Er…Alice?'
My fingers immediately flew from the keys and I shut my mouth. Twisting round on the stool, I saw Jay standing in the doorway and my breath caught in my throat again. Oh, God, he's just heard me singing. Floor, swallow me up! Please?!
"You were really good," he complimented as he walked over to me. Once he'd reached me and the stool, he nudged me gently with his hip, signalling for me to move up so that he could sit next to me. I scooted over as quickly as possible, my heart beginning to pound against my rib cage.
Words seemed to be failing me, but I managed to stutter out a small, "Thank you," before he thought I was being a totally ignorant sod.
He looked sideways at me and smiled, but his face fell all of a sudden. "I'm really sorry about Lance this morning," he blurted out. It sounded as though he'd been dying to say it for absolutely ages.
I was a little lost as for what to say. Why was Jay apologising to me for something he didn't even do? There was no need for him to. "Don't worry about it," I finally managed. "I think I was able to handle him."
Jay let out a little chuckle of a laugh and I involuntarily smiled. "That was immense. He definitely wasn't expecting that," he said. He almost sounded like he approved. I couldn't quite believe it.
"Yeah, well, I wasn't expecting it, either. It was like I'd turned into the Incredible Hulk or something," I muttered, playing with the hem of my shorts.
Another laugh, louder this time. I was glad that I was amusing him. It was nice to just sit next to him and talk; it felt comfortable, and not like I had to say or do anything out of the ordinary to impress him and keep him sitting there.
Turning in his seat slightly, he looked at me for a moment. Then he asked, "Do you want to come to a gig this weekend?"
Ohmigod, what did he just ask me?
Reply! Say something! Don't make faces like a goldfish!
"Yeah, sure. Who's playing?"
Jay grinned and bounced on the stool a little. He looked like a little kid on Christmas morning. "Me and my band. Well, it's not really my band. Aaron and Lance are in it, too. Aaron's on bass and Lance is on rhythm guitar."
"Oh, awesome. I didn't know you were in a band," I admitted.
"We've not been going long," he explained. "This'll be one of our first gigs."
I nodded and smiled to myself. I'm not gonna lie: I was absolutely over the moon he'd just invited me to see him perform. A lot of self-control was used in order to stop myself from squealing. "I'll definitely be there," I assured him. "Where is it?"
"Just in a little venue in town," he replied. "It starts at eight. I'll get the directions to you tomorrow." He paused for a moment, then he said, "I should probably go and actually practice, sooo..." He got up and made his way over to the door. "I'll see you tomorrow."
We smiled at each other and I said goodbye to him. He gently shut the door behind him and I twisted round to face the piano again. I attempted to pick up where I'd left off, but my mind was way too preoccupied, now.
Jay Ewan's just invited me to a gig! Aah!
Considering my day had started out so abysmally, I felt that it had ended on quite a high.